The Resignation
by SamoaPhoenix9
Summary: Agent Lee leaves the Zeta retrieval team. She reflects on what caused her change of heart, and gives a last shot at convincing Bennett of Zeta's peaceful intentions. Later, she and Bennett meet again when the truth about Zeta's nature has come out.
1. Resignation

**The Resignation**

_Disclaimer: I don't own the Zeta Project, though sometimes I wish I had my own personal Zee. Absolute devotion such as he has for Ro, and she has for him, is hard to find._

"Agent Lee, you aren't serious. I thought that verbal resignation was just a protest gesture for my behavior at Cryobin." Agent Bennett dropped the slip of paper onto his desk as if he couldn't bear to hold it any longer.

"I am serious, sir," she replied. She kept her back military straight, and her hands clasped loosely behind her. He could not know how much she'd agonized over this decision

Bennett slumped a little at her show of resolve. "Lee, don't do this to me. You're one of my top agents. I'm willing to forgive you calling Colonel Amack on me. In hindsight, you might have done the right thing."

"I appreciate the compliment, sir. If you'd write me a good recommendation for my next posting, wherever that is, I'd consider it a favor."

"Lee, be reasonable." An uncharacteristic note of pleading found its way into Bennett's voice. "You know more about the synthoid than most of my other agents on this assignment combined. Your resignation would put us at a serious disadvantage tracking him."

_Him, now is it? _thought Lee almost wryly. Even Bennett, the most hardened of the team towards the idea of Infiltration Unit Zeta possessing free will, had unconsciously absorbed some of the robot's development of individuality. In the beginning, Zeta had been an _it_, not a _he_. A dangerous malfunctioning machine that had to be caught and fixed. Nothing more than a disobedient toaster, just a tad bit more complicated as far as wiring.

Things had changed over the past year. Lee knew, from her research into the Zeta Project and the unit's past assignments, that Zeta had never kept a holographic form longer than an assignment required. It had no 'standard' hologram that it reverted to when not on assignment, it simply returned to its base state of humanoid robot. Once on the run, it had changed holographic forms often and at random.

Then Rosalie Rowan had come into the picture. Lee was still a little fuzzy on the details of how that had come about, though she had been present in the NSA van in Maryland when Miss Rowan first appeared. They had assumed her to be a hostage. Certainly no one would willingly aid a dangerous robot programmed to kill, and wanted by the Federal government to boot. Yet Rosalie had deliberately plucked him from the NSA's grasp, and had been seen in the synthoid's company in every Zeta sighting since. The girl obviously saw something in it—him—that the government was missing.

It was around that time Zeta began utilizing a particular hologram: a pale, broad-shouldered man whose height was close to Zeta's own six-foot-seven, with jet-black hair and chilly blue eyes. He used it so often that Bennett ordered it put on the wanted posters, along with Zeta's robotic form.

It didn't make any sense. Why would a synthoid that could project a hologram to look like anyone or anything deliberately choose to return to one 'home' image? Certainly it made him easier to track, and the robot had to know that. He was programmed to go undetected, to pass as human whenever possible. But having a standard human form was a new one. An illogical choice for an entity that could be nothing but logical.

Lee hadn't realized it at the time, but the niggling flame of doubt at the rightness of their cause that had always burned within her had been given a blast of oxygen when she noticed the hologram pattern emerging. The doubt had been furthered the more the reports trickled in of Zeta's exploits while on the run. Most of the time, when the NSA team received a valid tip and arrived on the scene, Zeta and Rosalie had already vanished. But not before something near-miraculous had occurred. A car accident prevented by a super-strong man. A child saved from inside a sealed fusion reactor. A runaway truckload of logs halted before anyone was hurt. All of these added up to one big question: _what if Zeta hadn't been reprogrammed by terrorists, but is in fact developing a personality all his own? What if he _decided _not to kill anymore?_

"Lee, are you listening?" Bennett's voice brought her back from her own musings.

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir."

"I said, you can't resign. How else am I supposed to keep West in line?"

"You'll manage, sir." Lee suppressed a smile. Bennett believed in pairing his most competent agents with the less seasoned ones, so those with less experience could learn from those who had more. To that end, Lee was often paired with West. West was a danger to himself and others if someone with a firm hand didn't hover over him to forestall some of his impulsive actions. Lee unfortunately fit these qualifications. "Agent West may improve in time," she added, a little lamely.

"Right." Bennett's stoic face almost slid into a sneer. "I get the feeling West wouldn't improve if he went back to Special Forces training for another six years. It's unfortunate he occasionally gets lucky with the hits on the synthoid's whereabouts, otherwise I'd have been able to request he be transferred to a…quieter…station."

"One that doesn't require carrying a sidearm," Lee replied, forgetting herself for a moment. To her surprise, Bennett chuckled, a small noise that might have been mistaken for a cough.

"So you agree I need you here?"

"No, sir. My request for transfer still stands."

Bennett glanced back at the sheet on his desk. "You didn't cite a reason for this request."

"It's personal." In fact, Lee doubted he would believe her reason. He might even send her, not to a new assignment, but to Homeland Security to check that her loyalties to her country hadn't been compromised. Bennett still firmly believed that Zeta had some nefarious plot programmed into him and all this running around helping people was some sort of cover for what he was really up to.

Lee had requested the transfer for a simple reason: she no longer believed in their cause. She'd been able to push aside her doubts about Zeta's motives until recent events had finally forced her to look at the facts.

It had all begun when checking a routine tip with West had turned out, unexpectedly, to be the real deal. The pair had chased Zeta and Rosalie into a swamp, where they were ambushed by some unknown assailant and their two-person transport had crashed. Lee had followed their fugitive pair alone, leaving West to try to get the shorted-out radio working and call for help. In hindsight, this might not have been the best idea. West was good with handheld electronics, one of the reasons he was allowed on the Zeta-retrieval team at all, but he had the patience of a squirrel confronted with a pile of acorns. He had quickly gotten bored and come after Lee.

Meanwhile, Lee had tracked Zeta and Rosalie to an abandoned candy factory, where all three of them had tangled with a bounty hunter out to get the government reward for turning in the fugitive robot. As bad an apple as he had been, Lee couldn't forget his words to her: "You people are wrong about Zeta…he seems programmed to save people."

And to her surprise, the man's faith in the robot's altruistic nature was proven correct. Zeta had risked his own safety and freedom to save Lee from being pulled apart on a taffy stretcher.

Of course West had gotten himself into trouble after sneaking into the factory, helped along by Zeta's friend Rosalie. Not that the girl needed to expend much effort to get West into a fix. It was a good thing for West his own self-absorption prevented embarrassment at consistently being bested by a high school dropout.

Lee had known then what she had to do, though if Bennett ever found out he would have her badge in a heartbeat. She deliberately chose to allow Zeta and Rosalie to escape the factory, claiming she had to help West first. She also, though not even West knew this, had destroyed the bounty hunter's collar that would have pacified Zeta rather that let the NSA team find it. After saving her life, she owed him some small gesture.

The final straw had been Bennett himself. Lee had at first decided that Zeta might be innocent, but there was no reason for her to stop trying to find him. After all, the NSA had designed Zeta in the first place, and they had some of the world's top scientists in the robotics field working for them. Maybe she'd be able to convince one to look into the issue of Zeta's sudden growth of a conscience and subsequently a personality once he was apprehended.

And then the Cryobin Incident, just two days ago. Lee had finally realized, when Bennett had disobeyed orders from his own superiors, that nothing would stop him from finding Zeta and reprogramming him to become a mindless killer once more. No amount of evidence save direct testimony from Zeta's elusive programmers would convince him the synthoid was not a threat. Anything else, Bennett would dismiss as circumstance, or something to do with Zeta's supposed terrorist mission. Taking Zeta down was becoming more of an obsession with Bennett than a job. Lee could not in good conscience remain a part of it.

"All right," Bennett said, when she remained silent. "I obviously can't convince you. As it happens, Colonel Amack told me after the Cryobin thing he needed someone in Containment. It's a top position, and to most people would look like a promotion rather than a transfer. It will involve a bit more desk work, but you'll have the same security clearance I do. An agent of your caliber, you certainly deserve it."

This was more than Lee had hoped for. "It's an honor, sir." Amack owed her anyway, for calling him about Bennett's disobedience.

"I'll get the paperwork ready, then. In the meantime, get back up to your station and check on West. Make sure he's not watching that sappy vid show—what's it called again?"

"Skye's the Limit, sir," Lee sighed. Memories of _that _vid show were not pleasant. The team had failed to capture Zeta once more—live on national vid broadcast. Why West still insisted on watching it was beyond Lee's ability to fathom. And that Bennett had repressed even the name of the show did not surprise her in the least.

"Right. That." Bennett wrinkled his nose. "Make sure he's doing his job for once and not slacking off. I'll notify you when everything's together for your transfer. For now, I'm signing off on your initial request." He pulled a pen from his desk and scrawled his signature across the line for the supervising agent's John Hancock.

"Thank you, sir."

"Stop that, Agent."

"Stop what, sir?"

"Stop calling me 'sir,'" Bennett snapped impatiently. "We're on level, now, Agent Lee, and are expected to behave as such." His eyes sparkled slightly behind their shaded green lenses, and the corners of his stern mouth twitched.

Lee stared openly for a second before she remembered her dignity. Bennett was renowned for his lack of a sense of humor, save for occasional bitingly sarcastic comments. That he was smiling now, even though she had betrayed him a few days before, now handed him a grave disappointment, spoke a lot for how much he thought of her. Lee felt a rush of guilt, before she remembered why she was asking for reassignment. Bennett, much as his respect meant to her, was also ruthlessly pursuing an innocent being. Her transfer was a protest.

"Thanks for the reminder—Agent Bennett."

He nodded shortly to her. Lee turned to go, but something made her pause at the door. "Sir—Agent Bennett. About Zeta." There she faltered.

"Yes?"

She had to try one last time. It had always been she who voiced objections to their methods in the past, always tried to be the voice of reason. She forced herself to speak. "We've been watching him for a long time now. Haven't you seen how he interacts with the girl, Rosalie?"

"What about it?" Now there was an impatient edge to Bennett's voice.

"She's an orphan, a runaway from a miserable experience at a Girls' Home in Maryland after being shuffled around the System most of her life. We decided she has no possible terrorist connections, to Brother's Day or otherwise," she reminded him.

"So?"

"Zeta's keeping her alive, fed and clothed. When we catch him, she's always there to bail him out. If something happens to her, he inevitably risks exposure to get her out of it. Don't you think it's…possible…they could have developed an understanding, even a relationship?"

"Miss Rowan has obviously decided the benefits of staying near an unlimited source of creds outweighs the risks of life on the run from her government," Bennett replied.

"But she's not just another delinquent teenager priming for a life of petty crime," protested Lee. "We've all seen how smart and resourceful she is. If she took an aptitude test, I'm sure she'd come up as prime agent material. In fact, were she on the force, I'm willing to bet she could take West's place right now."

This was the wrong tack to take, Lee saw immediately. Bennett's West-sneer reappeared. "The average civilian off the street could do a better job than West, Agent Lee, to say nothing of Miss Rowan. Smart the girl may be, but obviously not smart enough to stay on the right side of the law."

Lee almost retorted, _"Sometimes people deem things more important than the law," _but that would have landed her in a jail cell immediately. Instead, she said mildly, "What's an advanced killing machine like Zeta keeping the girl around for, then? If he's more than resourceful enough to evade us for over a year, he could easily loose Rosalie at any opportunity, no matter how smart she is."

She had him there, and Bennett clearly didn't like it. Nor did he appreciate the reminder of their failures of the past year. "Agent Lee, you're on dangerous ground with these assumptions. I've overlooked your soft spot for the synthoid until recently. I don't know what purpose Miss Rowan plays in all of this, but since meeting Zeta she's clearly become his accomplice. To top that off, she's assaulted Federal agents on multiple occasions. That should be enough for us all."

"Yes, Agent Bennett." But it wasn't enough for her. Not anymore. Lee had observed enough interactions between synthoid and girl to get a glimpse of how strong their loyalty to one another was. Rosalie would do anything to keep Zeta out of the government's hands. In return Zeta looked out for her, probably even gave her the companionship she'd been missing her entire life if the love-starved teen's file was any indication. They always had one another's backs, just like any bonded human team. Zeta had never been programmed to work with any sort of partner. It was this relationship of reciprocal trust, more even than Zeta's 'base' hologram, or his strange altruistic tendencies, that told Lee that Infiltration Unit Zeta had evolved from a humanoid spy robot into something else entirely.

She would never convince Bennett of this, however. She knew that now. In fact, the longer this chase went on, the more Bennett began to look like the heartless robot willing to do anything to complete his mission, and Zeta the human slowed down by his emotional ties. Pure irony.

"I was angry when I told you maybe you should reconsider your assignment with this unit, Agent Lee," Bennett said from behind her. "But this convinces me you're making the right choice."

"I knew that already," Lee said to herself, once the door to her former superior's office was closed. "You just confirmed it, once and for all."

She made her way to the main control room. Sure enough, West was there, eyes glued to a screen. Soft laughter from the speakers indicated he was _not _surfing the net for tips on Zeta's next appearance. Lee grinned to herself. Might as well have some fun, these last few days on the job.

"West!" she snapped, causing the younger man to jump a mile and spill whatever hyper-caffeinated filth he was drinking all over himself.

"Aw, Lee, why'd ya do that?" he whined.

"Because we're being inspected by our superiors today and I need to make sure you don't disgrace us," she answered, going to fetch napkins from a corner.

The cup slipped from West's hands, spilling the rest of his drink. "R-really?" he stammered.

"No. That was retribution for watching vids when you should be scanning for possible synthoid leads," Lee said, handing him the napkins. "And Bennett sent me up here to keep an eye on you. Especially since I won't be around to babysit much longer."

"What?" West looked up from his frantic scrubbing. "You're really leaving? But who's going to be my backup when we have to run down the synthoid?"

"Promotion, West. To Containment. So I'll still be cleaning up your messes, don't worry."

"Does this mean there's a chance I might get your spot?" West asked, all eagerness.

"I have no idea." _I doubt it. Very much._ "You'd have to prove to Bennett you're worthy before my replacement gets here. Think you can handle that?"

"Of course!" West huffed.

"Then get cleaned up and get back to work!"

"Yes, ma'am!" West began scrubbing his suit with renewed vigor. Lee rolled her eyes, took a seat beside him, pulled up the net, and began her routine checks. Since their last run-in with Zeta had only been days before, she expected to find nothing. Zeta and Rosalie were always doubly cautious for at least a week after an encounter with a Fed team of any size, and this last time had been a big one. Plenty of time for Lee to get her desk packed, in the proverbial sense, and move on. She might never see Zeta in the flesh—albeit holographic flesh—again. In fact, she hoped if she ever bumped into the synthoid, she wouldn't even know it was him.

She glanced at West to make certain he was occupied with his suit. "Good luck, Zeta," she muttered under her breath. "I did what I could. The rest is up to you."

_Author's Note: This is one of those obnoxious little stories that hits you in the middle of the night and won't let you go until it's on paper. This isn't my usual fandom, but then most of my one-shots aren't. I do enjoy the Zeta Project; it was one of my guilty pleasures in high school along with Yu-Gi-Oh!, Static Shock, Jackie Chan Adventures, and X-Men: Evolution._

_I finally got to watch the ZP episode "Absolute Zero," in which Agent Lee quits Bennett's team (it's not on the Season 1 package, curses), and I updated this fic to fit the circumstances of Lee's resignation better. I made the assumption that both she and Bennett cooled off before speaking to one another again, but Lee kept her resolve to quit._

_SamoaPhoenix9_


	2. Tables Turned

_Author's Note: Hi all! This has expanded from a one-shot into a two-shot. Once I got started wondering what Bennett would say to Lee once the truth came out, this story spilled out of me. Enjoy!_

**Part 2: Tables Turned**

Agent Lee knew who her visitor was the moment she got the comm. call. She had been expecting him ever since the news had spread like wildfire all through the NSA that Infiltration Unit Zeta was being taken off the "Wanted" list.

"Yes, I'm free. Send him up," she said, in response to the main desk's query. The heavyset older woman on the screen nodded to her and turned to speak to her visitor. The screen went blank.

Lee used the time waiting for him to reach her office to make another call. She was just hanging up when the door buzzed.

"Come in," she called.

The door slid open. Lee briefly fought the instinct to stand as her former superior, Agent Bennett, entered her small office. Instead she folded her fingers together on her desk and looked him straight in the eye. She let no emotion show on her face as she studied him.

It had been almost a year since they had spoken. In that time, Bennett had lost some weight, not that he had much to lose. There were also a few new lines around his mouth. Or maybe they weren't new, she had just forgotten how grim he could look. There were a few gray threads at his temples, barely visible in his light brown hair. She could also see the tension in his shoulders.

Bennett took a hesitant step forward. It was so unlike him to be hesitant in anything. Lee saw in that moment how much the abrupt end to his quest had broken him. Bennett had always been so sure, so in control. Of absolutely everything. It was one of his hallmarks, and headstrong tenacity was one of the reasons he had been made head of the Zeta Retrieval Team in the first place. To find out he had been in the wrong for such a length of time must have come as a huge blow.

"You see it, too," Bennett said.

"See what?" asked Lee.

"Don't be coy with me, Agent Lee. Even my son saw it. He said, 'Dad, you look old.'"

"I wouldn't say _old_," Lee admitted. "You look…tired." She indicated the extra chair she kept in her office for the few occasions she had guests. "Please, sit."

"I don't need to be coddled," Bennett grumbled, but he took the chair anyway. He folded his hands in a mirror image of hers. "You know why I'm here."

"Sir, Agent Bennett, I—"

"Don't." Bennett held up one hand. "Let me just get it out. You were right about the synthoid. Zeta." The name came out like a dose of lemon juice. "I should have listened to you more often. And…I'm sorry." He looked away, as if anticipating a blow. "There. I said it. Now gloat away."

"If this were the time for an 'I-told-you-so,' I would say it," Lee answered, moved by sudden compassion. "This goes beyond 'I-told-you-so,' I think. You've probably heard me saying it too many times in your head already, I suspect."

Bennett looked at her in surprise. "I didn't think you knew me so well."

"A good Agent knows her superiors." Lee shrugged. "As for 'I-told-you-so's,' I respect you too much to feed you something so petty."

"How can you say that, after I…after everything? And the way things are now?"

"I always admired you. You were tough when you needed to be. You made all the hard decisions so the rest of us just had to obey. You even kept West from blowing himself up even after I left." She ticked these off on her fingers.

Bennett chuckled. "That took work, believe me. No one else had the touch with him that you did. Agent Rush, your replacement, just ignored it when he made his usual blunders. Cracking his head was left to me."

"And one last thing," Lee continued, though she smiled. "I checked the records once I had the clearance. You never officially blamed your team for the failures, though we gave you ample opportunity. You took any heat yourself."

"There was no point in telling them West screwed up again. Eventually they would have stopped believing anyone could be that incompetent."

"But you could easily have gotten rid of him. Or me, when you suspected my 'soft spot' for Zeta," Lee pointed out.

"And a lot of good it's done me." Bennett's mouth twisted when he saw Lee's surprise. "Didn't you know? I'm just James Bennett now—not Agent. Somebody had to take the fall for the huge mistake with Zeta, and I certainly set myself up for it."

"They _fired _you?" Lee said without thinking, then winced at the look on Bennett's face. "I'm sorry. I didn't know. I assumed—" She didn't know what she had assumed, now. Of course they would fire Bennett. He was right—they needed someone to blame for two years and a great deal of money spent on the Zeta Retrieval.

A crazy idea occurred to her.

"I dug my own grave, really. I was the one who told Colonel Amack about what I saw on the Nosis. I heard Dr. Selig myself. He programmed Zeta with a conscience. How could I continue to chase the synthoid after that? And yet…"

"You wonder if you did the right thing? I've wondered the same thing myself at times for the past year. I did the best I could with the information I had. I saw there was no chance of changing things where I was, so I got out."

"And you're suggesting I do the same? Thanks, Agent, it looks like that's been done for me."

Lee knew what such a discharge meant. No more government positions in Bennett's future, not even for something as benevolent as the National Park Service. No government benefits for his family, nothing. Working for his country had been his life, and that was all gone. Now she understood why he looked so weary.

"That's not what I meant. I meant you did the best you could with the information you had. I had no idea when I put my resignation on your desk that there was a position in Containment open. I was fully expecting that to be the end of my career as an Agent. You gave me more than I deserved that day. I wish I could return the favor now, but…"

"Thanks, Agent, but working under a former subordinate would be more than I could take anyway."

Lee scowled at him. "I was going to say, but _my _hands are tied. I know a couple of people who might be interested in someone with your particular skill set, though. The choice is up to you."

"Awwww, Agent Lee, you had to spoil all the fun." Lee's comm. screen crackled to life. Lee, wondering if she was making a mistake, rotated it so that she and Bennett could both see the grinning face of Bucky Buenventura, kid genius.

"You!" Bennett exclaimed.

"Have you been listening the _whole _time, Mr. Buenventura?" Lee demanded, to give Bennett time to recover.

"Not the _whole _time," the young teen admitted ruefully. "Zee made us mute the sound from the vid feed at the beginning. He said you two had things to patch up."

"Us?" Bennett repeated faintly.

There was a light female chuckle, and the grinning face of Rosalie Rowan appeared on the screen next to Bucky's. "Boy, I didn't think it was possible. The great Agent Bennett looks like you could knock him over with a feather."

"I-is Zeta with you?" asked Bennett.

Rosalie's eyes narrowed. "You're not going to pull some switch and send a bunch of guys in camo after us, are you?"

"Not gonna happen," Bucky insisted. "I'm jamming our signal. No trace could ever pinpoint us. Except this one, of course." He held up a small metal disk sitting on the desk in front of him.

"You weren't talking about illegal electronic tracers in front of a Federal Agent, are you, Bucky?" asked Lee.

"Of course not, Agent Lee." Bucky's face was a picture of innocent goodwill, but she noticed he moved the disk out of the camera's sight.

"Shut up, Bucky," Rosalie said, and Bucky's head bobbed out of sight as she shoved him. "Half the stuff you invent you could never show Agent Lee. Better start cleaning your room before we make any more vid calls to her office."

"Hey! My room's clean enough!" But Bucky's face did not reappear on the screen. Presumably he was, in fact, hiding his various devices from Lee's view.

"Answer Agent Bennett's question, Ro," a gentle male voice said from off-screen.

Rosalie's eyes flicked to the right. "But, Zee—" She stopped, and her shoulders sagged. "Fine. Zee's here."

Into the screen moved Infiltration Unit Zeta, wearing his usual holomorphed human form of a broad-shouldered man in his early twenties with dark hair. Lee wondered how she had ever thought his eyes cold. They were sparkling with life. Apparently, freedom agreed with him.

"Hello, Agent Bennett."

Apparently, Bennett could not be moved to correct the obsolete title. "Zeta."

"You don't look well," Zeta observed. "Have you been getting enough rest?"

"I—" Bennett stuttered.

Rosalie rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Zee, you're too nice. This is where you spout off a line about how great he looks."

"But he doesn't look well. Why would I…"

"Never mind. I haven't made you watch enough vids. Go ahead with your little reunion."

"Where are you?" asked Bennett.

"Like we're going to tell you," Rosalie snapped.

"Ro…" Zeta shook his head at her. He looked back at the screen. "We've been staying with Bucky's parents. For now. We'll be getting a place of our own soon."

"Once everything's set up," Rosalie put in.

"Set up?" asked Bennett. "Exactly what are you three up to?"

Bucky reappeared. He looked smug. "We figured since we make such a great team, we'd start a little business of our own. We're PIs now. Or will be, once the license comes through."

"Private investigators?" Bennett repeated, as if unable to believe his ears.

"The quiet life doesn't suit us. We decided to pool our talents, but put them to nice things like finding missing people rather than becoming world-renowned bank robbers." Rosalie shot a glance at Zeta, as if he had been the killjoy to put the kibosh on the fabulous bank robbers idea.

"Is this operation of yours…" Bennett didn't seem to be able to finish.

"Don't worry, Mr. Bennett, we're legit," Bucky said, flashing his cheeky grin. "Thanks to Agent Lee. Once we were taken off the grid, we contacted her and she helped us set it all up. We may even be getting some government contracts occasionally."

"Don't count on that as your bread and butter," Lee reminded him sternly.

"Oh, we don't expect to make money! Thanks to cred-boy over here," Bucky jabbed a thumb at Zeta, "we can charge as little or as much as we want."

"Zee was all for making it free, but we persuaded him it would be suspicious if we didn't have some kind of income," Rosalie added. "After all, we have to be able to afford Bucky's tutor."

"_My _tutor?" Bucky scoffed. "I _have _my GED. And a Bachelor's degree. _And _two Master's degrees. I'd be tutoring _him_."

"What exactly is the point of all this?" Bennett asked Lee.

"You mean, why'd she call us?" asked Rosalie. "Isn't it obvious? You're out of a job. We have room for one more in the business. She's doing you a favor."

"My memory processors indicate you said 'over my dead body will Bennett be on the team,'" Zeta interjected.

Rosalie colored, but she said, "The idea's starting to grow on me." She looked back at the screen. "And, I liked your kid that time at the submarine lab. Maybe he and Bucky could set up a play date or two if you come work with us."

While Bucky sputtered incoherently, Bennett shot Lee a helpless look. Lee took charge. "Bucky, turn it off," she said. "You've made your offer. Let us talk for a few minutes."

Bucky sent one last glare at Rosalie. "Sure. Mr. Bennett, just get Agent Lee to contact us when you've got an answer." He reached forward and switched off the vid monitor. The screen went dark.

"And no eavesdropping!" Lee added to the air. She hoped Zeta would enforce the order.

"You expect me to _work_ with _that_?" Bennett demanded.

"It wouldn't be any worse than dealing with West," Lee shrugged. "And these kids have proved how effective they are. They could do worse than become PIs. I understand they plan to make their first project finding Rosalie's parents."

"Yes, but if it ever got out I was working _with _my former target—"

"A target you found out was innocent," Lee pointed out reasonably. "If the former targets don't care, I don't see why you should. Yes, there might be some sneers around the NSA, but how often will you see us?"

She had resolved not to push Bennett on the issue if he seemed averse to it, but she had seen the slight change in his posture during the conversation with Bucky, Rosalie, and Zeta. Even now, he did not look quite so defeated. He needed this, even if he hadn't realized it yet.

"I also happen to know all three of them respect you a great deal. They know what you're capable of. How many future employers will be able to use your skills like they will?"

She let Bennett think about this.

"I see your point," he finally said. He looked around. "Hopefully they're not listening in. I want another few days to really consider it, but it might be the best option I'll get. I could do worse."

"You know where to find me. I'll let them know whatever you decide."

He eyed her sharply. "You think I'm going to take it."

"It's your choice," Lee answered. "I'm sorry I can't offer you something more palatable. Believe me, I realize how galling this must be. It won't be easy, especially not at first, but I think eventually the four of you will get on. If you decide to go that way."

He stood up. "Thank you for all your help, Agent Lee. I came in here not knowing what to expect. You might have given me a way out of my dilemma. Just one more thing: how did you know they were listening in?"

Lee looked down. "I called them when I knew you were on your way. I thought the opportunity might present itself for you to at least make your peace with Zeta. He's been wanting to talk to you, but I told him to wait until you came to me. I was fairly certain you would. Eventually."

Bennett shook his head. "You do know me too well, Lee. You deserve to be an Agent."

"As much as you do, sir. The cards just had different things in mind for us. I hope you're happy with whatever you decide to do."

"Happy," Bennett said, as if this were a novel concept. Lee did not comment, but stood up to see him to the door.

"Goodbye, Agent Lee," he said, just before the door closed. "And thank you."


End file.
